Roanoke Star Sentinal:  Academic Summer Camp Story                                                Pam Rickard  6-30-08

 Summer, for most teachers, is a welcome and needed break from the challenges, demands and responsibilities of teaching and nurturing a classroom full of children.  For Quiana Parker and her fellow camp counselors at Apple Ridge Farm, however, their summer is 8 weeks of continually meeting the needs of more than 450 children.

 And they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Parker, along with Camp Director Jonathan Rosser and other camp counselors serving at Apple Ridge Farm’s Academic Summer Camp, is a Roanoke City schoolteacher.

Rosser, a PE teacher at Westside Elementary, has worked with Apple Ridge Farm for eight years and says he keeps coming back because he sees “the future” when he works with the kids.

“This camp experience is like an oasis for these kids,” Rosser said. “It’s a safe haven for them and a healthy change of pace. When I see the kids I had at camp in past years graduating with honors or going off to college, I feel like I see the future in the kids we have now.”

 This summer marks the Academic Summer Camp’s 20th season serving six-to 16-year-olds over an eight-week period. The camp consists of four two-week sessions. The youngest campers, ages six to eight, attend the first session, with each succeeding session hosting an older age group. Children are bused from Roanoke to Apple Ridge Farm’s 96-acre retreat facility in Copper Hill to enjoy the outdoors and take part in classic summer camp activities such as swimming, tennis, basketball and hiking. The leaders of the program, however, stress that their primary focus is strengthening the academic development of the children.

 “We use the great outdoors to develop interest and aptitude in reading, science, nature studies, language arts and computer science. We also provide opportunities for kids to explore different career choices and college preparation,” said Apple Ridge Farm President Peter Lewis.

During the third and fourth sessions of camp, the 11 through 16 year-olds participate in “Career Days”, when adults from several businesses and organizations within the Roanoke Valley meet with the kids to discuss specific paths to a variety of occupations.

 Thanks to a grant from The Spetzler Fund of The Foundation for Roanoke Valley, day trips to visit area colleges are also included in the curriculum for the third and fourth sessions.  Schools visited during the summer of 2007 included Radford University, Virginia State University, Virginia Western Community College, Virginia Tech, Virginia Union, Ferrum College and Liberty University.

 “Away from the heat and distractions of inner-city streets, we want to provide these young people with the opportunity to engage in activities designed to help them face challenges, stimulate trust and cooperation, and build self-esteem,” said Lewis.

 For campers, ages 13 through 16, the experience includes activities focused on goal setting, budgeting, resume writing and job searches.       

 Last summer, through a partnership with Roanoke City, Apple Ridge Farm offered several of the teen-aged campers employment as Junior Counselors. Ten to 15 younger children were also "employed" as Junior Counselors-In-Training.

 Lewis explains, “We feel that this taste of work experience not only gives our children a chance to earn money, but it also increases their self-esteem, and recycles our resources within the community.”

 No child is ever denied the opportunity to attend the camp, as the proceeds raised through Apple Ridge Farm’s annual “Send A Kid To Camp” campaign cover the costs for the children and no fees are charged for the camp experience. All campers are also offered a free health screening before the beginning of camp, provided by volunteers from the Roanoke Adolescent Health Partnership.

 Parker came up through the ranks at Apple Ridge Farm starting as a 6th grade camper in 1996, and quickly earned the role of Junior Counselor. She is one of Apple Ridge’s many success stories.

 After graduating as valedictorian from William Fleming High School, she went on to complete her bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.  Parker recently completed her first year of teaching 6th graders at Ruffner Middle School and works full-time over the summer as camp secretary.

 “I do a little bit of everything...I am sort of the ‘go to’ person. I love the atmosphere, the children and the people I work with. We truly are a family,” Parker said. “I love interacting with the kids, especially the 11 to 12 year olds. I’m still young enough that I really remember being a camper,” she laughs.

 More than 8,000 children have benefited from an Apple Ridge Farm camp experience since its beginning in the summer of 1989, and at least 475 will be added to that number this year.

  For more information, or to find out how to support Apple Ridge Farm, go to www.appleridge.org.

 WDBJ7, Roanoke

 July 4, 2008
Floyd County farm has provided haven for kids for 20 years

For more than 20 years, young people from the Roanoke Valley have been heading up Bent Mountain to spend part of their summer in Floyd County.  For many, Apple Ridge Farm is their first taste of the country, and it's an experience that also teaches them plenty about themselves.

"The mountains are like sentinels," says Peter Lewis, the founder of Apple Ridge Farm.  "Their broad shoulders welcome me home, and I find a peace and tranquility that's sustained me over the years."

Peter Lewis fell in love with the landscape at Apple Ridge more than 30 years ago.  It's a refuge he loves to share, with a single visitor on a Spring morning, or the hundreds of young people who visit Apple Ridge Farm throughout the year.

Around the pond, in the pool, on the tennis court, or in a classroom kids are having fun, but they're also learning.

"Kids get out there in a different environment, and it becomes what I call a teachable moment," says Peter.

The journey that brought Lewis to this "teachable moment" began in Washington, D.C.  His parents were educators who raised him with high expectations. He spent his summers on a 300-acre dairy farm, owned by his aunt and uncle.  As a graduate student and teacher, he began working with young people.

"I started working, volunteering at a prison and I ran into some kids I knew, and then I had two brothers that were in two different jails, and they said 'Go back and do something with our younger brothers,' and I did," explains Peter.  "I took 'em to the country."

What started with a couple of kids, has grown into a summer camp and year-round educational program that has brought thousands of young people to Copper Hill since 1976.
 
Carla Lewis describes it as an oasis of love.

"I've seen a lot of children grow," says Carla.  "They have an opportunity to walk trails, to find out what's in a pond, identify things in the forest and the trees, all kinds of animals... and they get a different perspective from just being in the city."

Just ask Michael Byrd. He was working as a senior counselor in 1998, when he first spoke with News7 about his Apple Ridge experience.

"I'm from Brooklyn, and going up there I tell everybody the atmosphere seeing farm animals for the first time, and the views of the mountains... I mean, it was beautiful," says Michael.  "That's one thing that will always stick with me.  Every time someone mentions Apple Ridge, it was that first trip in the school bus going up the mountain."

Today, Michael Byrd is a deputy sheriff in the city of Roanoke.
 
Quiana Parker has completed her first year as a teacher at Roanoke's William Ruffner Middle School. Like Byrd, she first visited Apple Ridge as a camper and she's still involved.

"Apple Ridge definitely has had an impact on my life," says Parker.  "Mr. Lewis requires the best out of a person.  He pulls that out of you, so that definitely helped mold me to where I am today."

Lewis is grateful for the support that has allowed Apple Ridge to grow.
 
He is quick to share the credit with his wife Carla, loyal staff and volunteers, and the contributors who have made it possible to build first class facilities.  with his 65th birthday approaching, Lewis says he's been thinking about the program's future and the leaders who will follow.

"I hope that they will have some sense of the hard work it took to get the place started, the sweat and tears... but that they'll be able to build on what we've done initially and carry it to places that we couldn't have done for ourselves," says Peter.

And he's hoping that people of good faith will continue to come together to make this place special for generations to come.

Peter Lewis has cultivated an old farm into a campus of educational opportunity.

by Christina Rogers

COPPER HILL -- When Peter Lewis first moved to this sprawling Floyd County farm in the spring of 1975, all that was there were a house, a dairy barn and some broad-stroke ideas about what it might become.